Photo's of Millie's Cavapoo pups & yesterday their eyes have started to open, so will soon have photo's of wide eyed pups. Although around 12 days onwards their eyes start to open it will be another week or two before they can truly focus them, so their world is a little blurry for a day or two.
For humans who have sight imagining a world without sight is scary & we are born seeing from day one although a little unfocused which makes me wonder why pups are born with closed eyes & not able to focus until around 28 days old, as if you converted this time in comparison to a human baby it would mean a baby not seeing until around 1 years old.
My oldest son & I  where talking one night about pups not being able to see at birth & we came up with thinking it is to fine tune their nose & from day one to teach them to take notice of this sense more than sight, as breeds like Beagle's who have one of the best scenting noses have not the best sight & the same can be said for Bloodhounds & Basset's who rely on nose over sight. As a predator sight is only really used in close quarters for pack hunting dogs as they closen for the kill but to locate & track the prey the nose is the primary sense used.
We also talked about communication between dogs & subtle body langauge. Does this make their communication on a higher level than speech affords us humans. As humans most of us have lost the ability to read subtle body gesture's & very often what someone is saying & what their subtle body language is saying can be opposing. Imagine a world where a subtle look & movement could be all that is needed to get your message across. I do not think an app will ever be made to do this, lol, but unfortunately with technology at such a level now that we may lose this form of communication completely in years to come & find it only in our pets such as dogs, who may understand us more than a fellow human & some may feel their pooch has already reached that stage. 
 A bit philosophical tonight !  

Smudge has been confirmed in pups today. The vet has said she is carrying at least 7 pups & maybe might be 8. This is a large litter for a Cavalier & especially as it is Smudge's first. Like her mum Millie she is a very laid back girl which helps when becoming a Mum. I can't deny I am a little worried for her as having big litters is not the best for mum & can over stretch the uterus causing uterine inertia which cause the contractions to be to weak to expel the pups & uterine inertia can also happen in long labours where the bitch gets exhausted. Very often when the bitch gets this from exhaustion a half ml of oxcytocin & this helps the bitch to contract & expel the pup but if caused by over stretching of the uterus normally a cesarean is best done first as last.
Smudge though is a big strong healthy Cavalier, so hopefully all will go well.
Reggie is having a girlfriend over for a few days with Fizz coming to visit him. Fizz is a Cavapoo we breed & is from Ysobel's first ever litter by my sister's Miniature Poodle Rollo. This will produce f1b's being three quarter Poodle & 1/4 Cavalier. Fizz's owner just wants one litter from her as they think she is so lovely to have one back herself & one for her sister. So hope Reggie works his charm as I will be very interested in the outcome of this mating. 
Millie's Cavapoo pups are doing really well & will get more photo's up tomorrow.

Thought I better get some photo's up of Millie & her Cavapoo pups who are now just over a week old as they are growing so fast. It was a busy end to last week with my youngest & oldest child having their birthdays a day apart & at the weekend we took advantage of the weather with a walk along the Taw River & a picnic. Last night I went to blog then got bogged down in a mammoth email & then realised it was very late & with an early start this morning waited until now to catch up.
Millie's pups at this stage are growing so quickly & in a few days time we should start to see their eyes opening.
Smudge is booked in on Thursday morning for her 28 day scan & I am pretty confident she is in pups as a distinct string of beads can be felt in her uterus area. From around 21 to 35 days a bead like string can be felt in a pregnant bitch & then the spaces between the beads which are the pups fills & then feels like one solid mass anytime from 28 days onward. It takes experience to feel this & you should not palpatate a bitches uterus unless you know what you are doing because to heavy handed you could cause damage & for the bitch to abort.
So scanning Smudge will be for me to know roughly how many pups she is carrying to aid me in feeding her & preparation & actions taken when she goes into labour.
Lastly Jessica's DNA results have arrived & she is normal for Curly Coat, Dry Eye & Eposodic falling.

Millie's Cavapoo pups are now three days old & at this stage they are growing at such a rate it is almost visable every hour I look at them. I have counted to seven so many times in the past couple days on checking them, as they are like book ends all looking so alike, I am now counting to seven in my sleep.
Millie as usual is just a brilliant mum being very relaxed about it all which was noticed in the vets, as they commented on how chilled she was about everything but I did say "although she is so chilled if she smelt the scent of a rabbit or a deer she could be ten fields away in a wink of an eye."
As you will see from the photo's it s a wonder they all fitted inside her & with three days growing they would not now fit.

Belle is doing well after her surgery & has had the dressing removed today. What she has had done is very interesting to reactivate the growth plate in her radius. The growth plate one side of her radius where the chip occured back at Christmas has closed over prematurely which means as the ulna keeps growing it will push up at the elbow causing a gap & thus causing Belle to have a dislocating elbow & also as the plate has stopped on one side of the radius this bone now will curve more, so to reactivate this growth plate a piece of bone has been removed from the surface of the radius & fat from her flank has been put into the gap where the piece of bone has been removed. Fat you might ask like I asked the vet "Why fat ?". The answer is fat does not calcify. If the bone was just removed it would quickly heal over again but the fat stops this & a future operation may have to be done to remove the fat if it does to good a job & then a bone graph on the radius bone to heal back where the bone was removed once the radius has grown enough. I think we are in for a long haul & Belle is probably going to have a slight limp all her life but not from pain but the fact that this leg maybe just fractionally shorter than the other. Belle is being very brave & on picking her up on Tuesday after her operation has got her own fan club in the vets who all fell in love with her. I know I am biased but she is such a sweet little girl being very pretty & very gentle.
The DNA results for the Cavaliers arrived on Tuesday evening on my computer with just Jessica's to still come. None of the Cavaliers carry the gene's for curly coat dry eye but the test for Episodic Falling in Cavaliers we have one carrier which is Smudge, as her mum is Millie who is clear this gene must be from her father.
She only carry's one copy of the gene & if mated with a  Cavalier tested normal would produce normal & carriers & would not produce affected animals only normal or carriers on around a 50/50 split.
Smudge is in pups to Reggie our Miniature Poodle & as this condition is specific to Cavaliers any pups will not be affected animals just normal or carriers. If one of her pups where to be kept to breed from then it would need to be tested to see if a carrier & was breed to another Cavapoo or Cavalier would mean a chance of doubling up of Cavalier genes for this condition.
A dog that is a carrier does not nessesary withdraw it from being used for breeding but strict testing must be adhered to. Which is using a mate tested normal for the condition or using a breed the gene is not seen in & then any offspring being kept back for breeding being DNA tested & then only keeping back a clear pup from the litter. DNA testing can be done as easily at 6 weeks or earlier.
On the whole though I am very pleased with the results as I was expecting maybe a carrier for curly coat & dry eye as this condition is seen more often in Cavaliers than Episodic Falling. As I went down through the 14 emails checking each dogs results my heart did quicken a little.
I spoke to the Animal Health Trust who agreed with what I said above "Smudge is okay to breed to a Cavalier tested normal or dog breed without this gene problem." They are very helpful & doing great work for the health of dogs.        
 

A little treat for those waiting to meet Millie & her Cavapoo pups. Just could not resist doing this little video & posting it. Just listen to the sounds of the pups sucking & mum snoring. Millie just chilling with her pups.

Belle had her surgery yesterday & has come through it well & I have also had DNA test results back for the Cavaliers taken last week, so will hope to blog later about these two things. 

Millie has got 7 Cavapoo pups, one was born naturally but it was decided after the first was born with a little manual help that a cesarean was best for her & the pups. Mum has just come home & is settled with her litter of 5 girls & 2 boys. Modern aneashetics are amazing as dropped Millie of at 8pm to be rung at 10.25pm to pick her back up. Surprised how little white is on them but they are all about the same size around 0.27 kg each.
We are all very tired & will be on vigil tonight on the sofa bed to make sure Mum & pups are okay through the first hours.
Will be intouch tomorrow with everyone waiting on this litter but thought I would just let everyone know that all is okay.

Thanks Julie for posting it reminded me to publish your photo's of Poppy. Poppy is from Dolly's litter born October 2011. She was the little one of the litter but as Julie will know she might be little but she has a big character. Thanks for letting me know all is well & I think we will all agree that she is a beautiful looking little girl. 

Millie's temperature has dropped significantly today that I would hope pups to be here within the next 36 hours. She is very uncomfortable & her demeanor has subtly changed today. She is looking very big now but can still easily jump up on the sofa although finding a comfortable position to lie in once she is there is not so easy now she is so heavy in pup.
This afternoon the sun came out & I got a couple nice shoots of Millie outside with the three muskateers Belle, Toby & Jessica.
Toby I must admit has stolen my heart. He is like a heat seeking missile & as soon as I settle down in the evening he looks up from his slumber & within a wink of an eye is fast asleep strewn over my lap. His coat is like moleskin & normally stroking him in his slumber I am soon joining him in dream land. Dogs are very good for relaxing you especially if they are as chilled as Toby. When I look down at Toby on my lap with him being a tricoloured boy he brings back memories of my two old tricoloured boys who have not long been past away, although emotional they are good memories of my beloved Smidge & Pupster who will always be close in my thoughts. Toby is a proper boy being very funny especially as he goes through his gangle phase. His sister Jessica is also very dear to my heart but there's something about the boy ! I think you will see what I mean from the photo's tonight. 

What a lovely day! Its been sunshine here all day after a misty start. The sun just makes everything seem so much better. Spring is here again & we all breath a sigh of relief with another winter hopefully behind us. March though can go out like a lion & a few years back I remember foaling in a maiden mare early hours of an April morning with a unseasonal layer of snow on the ground outside.
Have had a busy weekend clipping dogs & preparing everything for Millies birth. Tomorrow Belle will be having her leg re X-rayed as she chipped her  radius back at Christmas time. All was going well but about a week ago she started showing intermittent lamness again on the leg & on Friday was for the first time showing soreness on manipulating the joint & the joint will not fully flex back. I put her back on her pain relief medication & booked her into the vets to be X-rayed again tomorrow. I am pretty sure we are now looking a surgical intervention as either the chip has moved or we have bone callousing causing the pain & lack of fexion in the joint. Belle is a brave girl who is turning in to a beautiful dog not only to look at but in temperement & I think she will take this all in her stride. Orthopedics surgery in dogs these days are very successful, so tomorrow I will go to the vets with a positive attitude.
On Tuesday the vet is coming to me as we are having all the Cavaliers DNA tested for Curly Coat Dry Eye & Episodic Falling. Both these conditions are featured on my "About The Cavalier" page if you want to know more about them.
The Animal Health Trust are working hard developing DNA tests & last year these two tests where developed for Cavaliers. Curly Coat Dry Eye is a very painful condition for a Cavalier & although I have never known of any of my Cavaliers suffering from this condition it does not mean that they do not carry the DNA for it but I might have been just lucky in not ever pairing them up with another dog who also carrys the gene. These gene test should now be done by all Cavalier breeders as it has the potential to eradicate this condition from Cavaliers.
The other DNA test is for Episodic Falling which is very specific to Cavaliers very often being misdiagnosed. I have never had this in my dogs but does not rule out gene carriers.
The test is a swab from the mouth which I could do myself but my vet will do it for me to prove identity of each dog by their microchip & sign each form to varify the swab is from the identified dog. The Kennel Club records these results.
DNA tests are such a help to breeding & as more & more break throughs are made, if breeding for health this science is a must do. Finding out your dog is a gene carrier for a disorder does  not always count your dog out from breeding from as if put to a dog that is not a gene carrier of the same disorder you can breed a litter of non carriers & carriers & not dogs who will develop the disorders, as for most genetic disorders a gene has to come from both parents.
If you breed from a carrier to a non carrier the litter can then be DNA tested around 6 weeks old & pups that carry the gene should go to non breeding homes & if a quality pup is a non carrier it can then be kept back by the breeder.
Breeding non carrier to carrier in dog breeds if done with all health tests done on pups is a way to keep breeding numbers up in breeds thus genetic diversity does not deminish to much, as some rarer dogs breeds if you remove all dogs from breeding that are carriers of a certain disorder you would take out such a large number of them that you would then have such low numbers that the risk of breeding more genetic problems into the breed would be very high.
We all carry good & bad genes & the more diversity we have in our family trees the less likely on average you will see genetic disorders. As less chance of doubling up of genes. Where we see human populations with close related marriages such as cousins repeated several times in a family tree on average you will see higher occurance of genetic disorders. As cousins have the same Gran parents & if say one Gran parent has a bad gene & they pass this gene to their two offspring & then they pass this to the Gran children who are cousins who marry each other both carrying the bad gene from the one Gran parent. They then have a very high chance of a child being born with a doubling up of the bad gene thus then developing the genetic disorder. So apply this to dog breeding & if a dog who is a carrier of a bad gene is linebreed with breeding to his sister's, daughter's, cousin's etc you then start to understand how purebreed dogs have got into the mess we have now.
When linebreeding was first done it was seen as breeding best to best regardless of relationship of dogs to each other & was felt to breed the best dogs in looks & health but we do now know the genetic fall out of it. With DNA testing there is light at the end of the tunnel for some breeds.
Hope this all makes sense & is a very simplistic way of showing how a genetic disorder can be spread through a family tree. I will blog on Crufts soon but just want to catch the Crufts final on More 4+1.

Millie is now approaching 8 weeks pregnant. She looks very well in herself & has just started to slow up a little.  From Wednesday I will start the 24 hour vigil of her as she drops into the time zone that she could whelp (give birth) any time.
I will move her to labour ward tomorrow which is a pen in our living room with the whelping box in with heat lamp in place ready for the new arrivals. It is always good to get Mum settled in where you want them to give birth choosing a place which is quiet which you can observe them without being intrusive.
 Millie as most will know had a cesarean with her last litter after successfully delivering three pups, a pup decided to come bum first which was okay if its legs had not been back as well which was bad luck. Because Millie has had one litter successfully & delivered three of her last litter okay, we know she is capable of giving birth & her cesarean was because of bad luck not because she is not capable of giving birth, so with the vets advice we decided we would bred her again but if a cesarean this time instead of this being her penultimute litter it will be her last. Which is not a worry as my main concern & priority at this time is to get Mum & pups through the birth all safe & sound. I cannot help but get excited with each litter as the birth becomes eminent. At this stage I have all to gain but all to lose if complacent. 
The slide show below is Millie taken over the last 7 days. The photo's are very flattering as Millie seems to look more pregnant in the flesh than in the photo's. Her tummy has been a mass of movement since a couple days ago when upto then you could only feel the pups moving but now it looks like they are having a football match in her tummy.

Crufts has been in full swing this week & will hope to blog tomorrow on this & the busy week we have ahead at Poundlane health testing dogs & getting Belle's leg re X-rayed.  More tomorrow all going well.